Page 11 - Euroil Week 48 2019

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil
Spirit’s Andromeda North probe underwhelms
UK
The nd was at the “lower end of expectations.”
SPIRIT Energy has struck gas at its Andromeda North well o the UK, but has said the nd is at the “lower end of expectations.”
The North Sea-focused player has a 55% operating stake in the P2128 licence containing the well, while its Dutch partner Hague and Lon- don Oil (HALO) controls the remaining interest.
Andromeda North was spudded in July using the Noble Hans Deul jack-up rig and had a target depth of 3,000 metres. In an update released on December 2, HALO said the well had been com- pleted, having proved a gas discovery in Carbon- iferous sandstones.
e probe encountered a signi cant gas col- umn within good quality, porous and permeable rock at the Westphalian A target, as was found in a similar reservoir section at Spirit’s Pegasus West eld located north, HALO said. Gas water contact was shallower than at Pegasus West, however, indicating that Andromeda North is not in communication with the eld.
Pressure data demonstrates there is recov- erable gas at the site, and there remains a so far unquantified up-dip of the Andromeda well. Results therefore met “minimum” targets and the well will be plugged and abandoned while the data is studied.
Results will be used for future planning, including for a possible appraisal well along with ongoing development work in the Greater Pegasus Area.
“ e Andromeda North well proved a natu- ral gas discovery in the Carboniferous objective but at the lower end of expectations. However, it has also proven the Pegasus play further west- ward,” HALO’s interim CEO Andrew Cochran commented. “ e partners will continue to eval- uate the data and implications for future activity in the Andromeda area in parallel with the ongo- ing Pegasus work.”
Spirit and HALO had been targeting up to 40bn cubic feet (1.13bn cubic metres) of gas at Andromeda North, which marks the former’s rst operated exploration well on the UK shelf. Its resources could potentially be linked to the main Pegasus West development.
Pegasus West itself has run into some di - culty, with Spirit and its partner Neptune Energy in a disagreement over whether the eld should be tied back to the Neptune-operated Cygnus platform. e dispute, which the UK Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) is helping to resolve, has led to Spirit delaying a nal investment decision (FID) on the project. ™
Serbian gas firm to finish unbundling in Oct 2020
SERBIA
Srbijagas’ transmission has already been spun off but its distribution and retail activities are yet to go.
SERBIA plans to nish unbundling its natural gas provider Srbijagas by October next year, opening the door for free competition in its gas market, the state-run rm’s director Dusan Baja- tovic said on December 2.
Srbijagas has already spun o its gas trans- mission business to a separate company Trans- portgas Srbija, which started operations in October last year. But it also needs to unbundle its distribution activities. A new company, Dis- tribucijagas Srbija, was set up for this purpose back in 2015 but remains inactive.
“We believe there should be four distribution zones in Serbia, which will cover all consumer needs,” Bajatovic said in a statement. “A er the distribution, the gas retail activities will also be unbundled.”
Bajatovic was speaking during a presentation of a new system for remote control and manage- ment of Serbia’s gas transportation system – a project funded with a EUR1.7mn ($1.9mn) EU grant.
Serbia has been under pressure from the EU to liberalise its energy market for years. As a member of the Energy Community, an EU
body set up to extend the bloc’s energy policy to would-be members, it faces penalties for not making progress with reform, such as curtails to EU lending.
In Srbijagas’ case, reform was earlier delayed because of its large debts. A er several years of losses, it is now generating stable pro ts, remov- ing this obstacle. But Srbijagas managers and their political overseers have also stalled the process, because of fears of the company losing its market monopoly.
Serbia is also at odds with the EU over its sup- port for Russia’s TurkStream gas pipeline, which is expected to run through the Balkan state on route to Hungary. e European Commission has warned that the pipeline project will impede competition in the region.
Many Balkan countries rely heavily on Rus- sian gas. Rather than reducing its reliance, Serbia agreed to raise annual purchases from Russia to 2bn cubic metres in 2018, from 1.5bcm the pre- vious year. It is also working with Gazprom to develop a series of gas- red power plants – pro- jects that if realised would increase its depend- ence on Russia even further. ™
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